Surpeze like “surprise” pronounced all fancy, see?

So here’s the problem. Even the best efforts of four adults to eat all of the Thanksgiving leftovers were for naught. I had a LOT of stuff left over, still, on Sunday morning, which is my absolute “freeze or chuck” cutoff for TG-related fare (someone will probably tell me that even that is giving it a day too long).

The following recipe emerged:

Most of the leftover dark meat, diced, including any bacon-wrapped garlic/rosemary spears you may find embedded in the meat.
Two or three slices of white meat, diced
Leftover sausage/pancetta stuffing, also diced if needed (if you made straight bread stuffing, add much less and cut the handful of breadcrumbs in half)
A handful of leftover mashed potatoes
A smaller handful of leftover maple-glazed carrots, diced
A handful of breadcrumbs
Fresh parsley, chopped reasonably fine
A knob of butter
Two large or three small eggs, beaten
Salt & Pepper

Any leftover onion, garlic, fresh herbs or other aromatics you have to hand

Leftover gravy

4 Disposable mini-loaf pans

Preheat the oven to 350. Heat some oil in a skillet at medium. Chop the aromatics and herbs and slap them in the pan. Keep at medium heat and saute until soft and well browned.

Meanwhile, combine the turkey, stuffing, potatoes, and carrots in a large mixing bowl. Set to with a potato masher, being sure to break everything up. If your potatoes have gotten dry, you may need to add milk. When the onion mixture is ready, add it to the bowl along with the butter, and mash the crap out of those as well. You should end up with a consistency of course meal. To this, add the beaten eggs. Mash until the egg is well mixed in and things are starting to cohere. Add breadcrumbs, mix, and eyeball it. Does it look vaguely reminiscent of meatloaf? If so, add the parsley, give it a good shot of pepper and a lighter shot of salt, mix one last time, and spoon it all into the loaf pans (if you’re cutting fat out of the dish, be sure to lightly grease the pans). If not, jigger with it – more breadcrumbs? A little more meat? Scrap the whole project, pronounce it “who hash,” and serve with toast? If you get to loaves, top each loaf with gravy.

Into the oven, give it forty-five to an hour. Eat one immediately (because oh my god, YUM), with a little cranberry sauce. After the rest cool, double wrap them in foil or butcher paper, label, and stick them in the freezer. Should make four loaves, each suitable for splitting with another grownup.

Haven’t tried it on Claire, but Carmen gave it a big thumbs up after lunch today. Wahoo!